On August 9, 1940, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill, published a memorandum titled “Brevity.” In this one-page document, he urged all officials to write shorter reports. This memorandum has never aged.
What exactly did Churchill include in this document? Here is Churchill’s memorandum “Brevity”:
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To do our work, we all have to read a mass of papers. Nearly all of them are too long. This wastes time, while energy has to be spent in looking for the essential points.
I ask my colleagues and their staffs to see to it that their reports are shorter.
(i) The aim should be reports which set out the main points in a series of short, crisp paragraphs.
(ii) If a report relies on detailed analysis of some complicated factors, or on statistics, these should be set out in an appendix.
(iii) Often the occasion is best met by submitting not a full-dress report, but an aide-mémoire consisting of headings only, which can be expanded orally if needed.
(iv) Let us have an end to phrases such as these: “It is also of importance to bear in mind the following considerations…” or “Consideration should be given to the possibility of carrying into effect…” Most of these woolly phrases are mere padding, which can be left out altogether, or replaced by a single word. Let us not shrink from using the short, expressive phrase, even if it is conversational.
Reports drawn up on the lines I propose may at first seem rough as compared with the flat surface of officialese jargon. But the saving in time will be great, while the discipline of setting out the real points concisely will prove an aid to clearer thinking.
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Two short reflections to conclude:
First, wouldn’t communication in our daily business life be much easier if we adhered to these simple principles?
Second, take a moment to notice the structure of the text—it follows the principles of clear communication. It consists of four parts:
Context
Main thesis (reports must be shorter)
Details
Summary
And this is exactly the structure we should follow when creating any informational reports.